In about a third of the time it would have taken other NASA Mars rovers, Perseverance recently navigated its way through a field of boulders more than 1,700 feet wide (about a half-kilometer). While planners map out the rover\u2019s general routes, Perseverance managed the finer points of navigating the field, nicknamed \u201cSnowdrift Peak,\u201d on its own, courtesy of AutoNav, the self-driving system that helps cut down driving time between areas of scientific interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, Perseverance has set rover speed records on Mars since landing in February 2021. The feats of AutoNav were detailed in a paper about the rover\u2019s autonomous systems published in the July issue of the journal Science Robotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tyler Del Sesto has worked on the software for Perseverance\u2019s AutoNav for seven years. He used to think that sometimes the obstacles placed before Perseverance\u2019s Earthly twin OPTIMISM during testing in the Mars Yard at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory went a little overboard. He changed his mind after Snowdrift Peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was much denser than anything Perseverance has encountered before \u2013 just absolutely littered with these big rocks,\u201d said Del Sesto, deputy rover planner lead for Perseverance at JPL in Southern California. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to go around it because it would have taken us weeks. More time driving means less time for science, so we just dove right in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 26, Perseverance entered the eastern edge of Snowdrift Peak. Including two stops for boulders that the science team wanted to inspect, the straight-line route through Snowdrift would cover 1,706 feet (520 meters). By the time the rover exited the western edge of the boulder field on July 31, it had logged 2,490 feet (759 meters) \u2013 with much of the extra distance coming from AutoNav maneuvering around rocks not visible in the orbiter images used to plan the route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you take out the sols (Martian days) dedicated to mission science, the traverse through Snowdrift Peak only took six autonomous drive sols, which is probably 12 sols faster than Curiosity would have taken,\u201d said Del Sesto. \u201cOf course, everybody on the team knows we only got to this level of performance by standing on the shoulders of giants. Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity were the trailblazers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the Wheels of Giants<\/strong> Curiosity, which landed in 2012, recently got a software upgrade to help make driving decisions, but Perseverance packs several advantages: With faster cameras, the rover can take images quickly enough to process its route in real-time, and it has an additional computer dedicated entirely to image processing, eliminating the need to pause to decide its next move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur rover is the perfect example of the old adage \u2018two brains are better than one,\u2019\u201d said Vandi Verma, lead author of the paper and the mission\u2019s chief engineer for robotic operations at JPL. \u201cPerseverance is the first rover that has two computer brains working together, allowing it to make decisions on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This autonomous capability has allowed Perseverance to set new records for Mars off-roading, including a single-day drive distance of 1140.7 feet (347.7 meters) and longest drive without human review: 2296.2 feet (699.9 meters). But those achievements took place back when the rover was driving across the relatively flat terrain of Jezero Crater\u2019s floor, without large rocks and other craters standing in its way. That\u2019s why this recent navigation of boulder-festooned Snowdrift Peak impressed even the engineers who plan rover outings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Campaign New Terrain<\/strong> \u201cThe time where a rover science team could look at features on the Martian horizon and file them away for future consideration is over,\u201d said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena. \u201cWe have to be on our toes because Perseverance\u2019s autonomous capabilities can make something we see in the distance on one sol right in front \u2013 or even behind us \u2013 on the next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the new exploration possibilities come new challenges: broken bedrock, higher slopes, and sand dunes, as well as small impact craters in Perseverance\u2019s near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis new terrain is definitely going to throw a few curveballs at us and AutoNav,\u201d said Mark Maimone, deputy team chief for robotic operations on Perseverance. \u201cBut that is where the science is. We\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More About the Mission<\/strong> Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA\u2019s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In about a third of the time it would have taken other NASA Mars…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[219,210,211,215,214],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news","tag-indian-space-magazines","tag-indian-space-news","tag-space-magazines","tag-space-news-online","tag-space-news-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions\/2374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Some form of silicon-based navigator has been in use since the first Mars rover started dodging rocks in 1997. Back then, the microwave oven-size Sojourner needed to stop every 5.1 inches (13 centimeters) for its computer brain to take stock of its new environs before proceeding farther. The next Mars rovers \u2013 the golf cart-size Spirit and Opportunity (which arrived in 2004) \u2013 could drive distances up to 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) before they too had to halt and figure out next moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the boulder field may be in Perseverance\u2019s metaphorical rearview mirror, more driving challenges lay ahead. The rover began its fourth science campaign on Sept. 7 by crossing \u201cMandu Wall,\u201d a rolling ridgeline separating two geologic units along the inner edge of Jezero Crater\u2019s western rim. Orbital data indicates the area is filled with carbonates \u2013 which may provide invaluable data on Mars\u2019 environmental history as well as preserve signs of ancient microbial life, if any existed in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A key objective for Perseverance\u2019s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet\u2019s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).<\/p>\n\n\n\n